When we are in a difficult state of thinking, we usually have a sense of powerlessness. It seems that all efforts are in vain, and there will always be unexpected problems! Many people come to two bad conclusions: their own thinking skills are insufficient, and trying to think is useless.
It's not that thinking itself makes it difficult for us, it's that our thinking is not right! To understand how a person thinks, we need to have a deep understanding of the brain's habitual thinking patterns. To think better, you need to have a deep understanding of how the brain thinks, as well as familiarity with the various thinking pitfalls and the correct use of thinking tools.
Thinking is tied to two important factors: how our brains process information and how much cache it is used to store it. The cache capacity mentioned here is crucial because our thinking requires a huge amount of space, and if we don't have enough capacity, we can flood or get blocked. Although everyone has the basic equipment to think, it is far from enough.
The study of the brain is an emerging science, and mainstream thought has always insisted that thinking cannot be trained. There is a proverb that expresses exactly this idea: "The wise are born to win, and the stupid are always stupid, and there is no cure." "However, studies have found that blood flow to one specific area of the brain increases when people are solving a new unknown task. That particular area is what many psychologists are fascinated by: the working memory zone.
When the brain is thinking, the blood supply to the working memory area increases significantly, and once the problem is solved, the blood supply gradually decreases. It can be seen that when we think about it, something must be going on in the working memory area.
The concept of "working memory" was born in the early 19th century, in the early stages of brain research. By the 70s of the 19th century, the study of the brain shifted to the neocortex, specifically the anterior region near the forehead. Tests have shown that different areas in the neocortex also function differently. Some areas are responsible for organizing muscle movements, while others are responsible for cognitive processes. In the 60s of the 20th century, researchers introduced the concept of "working memory", which is regarded as the short-term memory of information, from psychology.
Physiologically, our working memory is mainly located in a small area on the frontal lobe, known as the PFC (prefrontal cortex). Research shows that the more tasks this part takes, the more resilient we are in complex situations. In everyday life, if a colleague asks you a question, your working memory starts to kick in after he has given you a basic introduction. You try to understand the problem and give a response or even a solution. However, the person you're talking to has a new message to you. It's possible that he forgot to mention it in the conversation just now, or that your answer gave him new inspiration. Now you have to put together the new and existing information and respond again. This updating process is also done by working memory.
Working memory itself does not have a specific function, for example, the visual area is responsible for processing image signals, and the language area is responsible for processing language signals. However, it has a function that no other part of the brain has: coordinating individuals in the brain and forming multiple units of information into a whole. This gives us the opportunity to think, plan, make decisions and solve problems. At the same time, the neuronal connectivity properties of working memory allow us to consciously save as much data as possible at the same time.
This function is very complex, and we can understand it as an approximation with complex mental arithmetic: numbers, formulas, calculations, intermediate values, more formulas, more intermediate values, until the final result is reached.
The capacity of working memory determines our problem-solving ability and IQ test scores.